ISLAMABAD, April 15: In a rejoinder to the allegations levelled by Gen Pervez Musharraf against Nawaz Sharif, PML(N) spokesman on Sunday said the Muslim League government was proud of having exported sugar to India during its rule, which earned millions of rupees to shore up Pakistan’s reserves.

The military government, on the contrary, had imported sugar from India at the cost of billions of rupees that were used by India to import modern sophisticated weapons, he added.

In a fact sheet, Siddiqul Farooq alleged that Mr Musharraf was distorting facts when he claimed to have initiated Gwadar Port Project, for it was the brainchild of Nawaz Sharif who had taken practical steps to start the plan. It was his government which gave a go-ahead to the project in July 1997m, PC-I of which was approved in May 1998, he added.

He said that as a result of talks with the Chinese officials in August 1999, the Harbour Engineering Corporation of China signed an MoU with the government in September 1999, for financing the first phase of the project. Had sanctions not been imposed and Gen Musharraf not revolted, work on Gwadar Port would have started by the end of 1999, he said.

The spokesman also claimed that the motorway project was the product of creative imagination and execution of the ousted prime minister, and today 300-kilometre stretch of it was the longest and safest runway for the aircrafts of the PAF.

Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway, he said, was to be completed by December 2000, but due to Oct 12, 1999, “revolt” not only Musharraf “junta” stopped work on it and cancelled the cataract of the Turkish firm, Bayinder.

Now the contract was awarded to a Pakistani firm without floating any tender, putting its transparency to serious doubts, and the completion of the project might go up to 2006. A person Aftab Siddiqui, alleged to be relative of Gen Musharraf’s son Bilal Musharraf, was also the talk of the town in the award of this contract, he maintained.